Minnesota Farmers Union

(May 20, 2011) - With the world’s population projected to exceed 9 billion people by 2050, many are concerned to make sure that we have the ability to feed the additional 2 billion people. With this growth as justification, some of those involved in producing genetically modified crops (GMOs) are using this as a means of pressuring those countries, particularly the Europeans, who have resisted the adoption of this technology, to accept the use of these crops. The argument is that only by the adoption of the available technology and using GMOs will farmers be able to feed the additional people who will inhabit this planet in 40 years.

This argument misses the point on several levels. First, GMOs ought to be accepted or rejected on their own merits and using the population increase to push a proprietary technology that will enrich some at the cost of others seems somewhat opportunistic. Second, even if they are proven safe, the acceptance or rejection of GMOs by consumers is not a matter simply of science, but is also a matter of consumer preference and the problem of keeping non-GMOs from being contaminated with GM genetics.

Third, and probably most important for developing countries, is the lack of research, either public or private, on traditional crops that are often the culturally preferred food or used to make culturally preferred foods.

(January 22, 2010) - The impending loss of Monsanto's patent on its Roundup Ready soybean in 2014 raises a number of important policy issues in addition to those raised in DuPont's anti-trust case against Monsanto and the opening of an antitrust investigation of Monsanto by the US Department of Justice.

Monsanto's Roundup Ready genetics is used in 90 percent of all soybeans grown in the United States. Other major crops containing the Roundup Ready genetics are corn and cotton.

The advent of this technology in soybeans in 1996 spelled the end to bean walking and bean bars as a means of controlling weeds in soybeans. Spraying glyphosate on soybeans with the Roundup Ready gene killed the weeds while allowing the soybean plants to continue growing and providing farmers with a superior weed-control technology.

While the technology did not affect yields appreciably, it saved farmers time and effort. The Roundup Ready technology also provided weed control for no-till agriculture.

One of the contractual obligations farmers accepted in buying Roundup Ready soybeans was a prohibition on the saving of seed as had been common among soybean farmers before the advent of the technology. In addition to paying a higher price for the seed, farmers pay a technology fee.